


Two-Drink Minimum

by 13th_blackbird



Series: Winterverse [2]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars: Thrawn - Timothy Zahn
Genre: Additional Warnings In Author's Note, Drunk Sex, Eli and Faro brotp, Eli and Thrawn have That Conversation, Established Relationship, Light Angst, M/M, Plot What Plot/Porn Without Plot, Porn with Feelings, Top!Eli
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-27
Updated: 2017-12-27
Packaged: 2019-02-22 09:40:53
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,184
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13164267
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/13th_blackbird/pseuds/13th_blackbird
Summary: Eli has a drink with Faro. Eli has three drinks with Thrawn...and discovers exactly how their relationship has changed since their return from the ice planet Vria.The smutty coda that Depth of Winter should have had, but took me forever to write. Direct sequel to that one. Plays a little bit fast-and-loose with the timeline of the book but what are you gonna do.--"This, too, was part of a plan. Eli was walking right into it, and he didn't mind. He sighed and stretched, feeling Thrawn's eyes on his arms, on the muscles straining as he reached over his head. He let the stretch go on a second too long, enjoying the attention."





	Two-Drink Minimum

**Author's Note:**

> Content warning for sex while both parties are intoxicated. I consider it very much consensual, but realize that not everyone does!

Eli left Thrawn’s quarters early in ship’s morning, and almost immediately ran into a Lieutenant rushing to her station. He’d anticipated this, and had brought several datapads with him for just this situation. He bent his head and scowled at one of them, then looked up and rolled his eyes at the Lieutenant.

 _You know how it is_ , his expression would say.

She rolled her eyes back at him in understanding — _superiors._

Eli smiled as she set off in the other direction, pulling his cap low and ducking his head to hide his idiotic grin. Under the high collar of his uniform, bite marks bloomed. He could still feel Thrawn’s cool mouth running over his skin—Eli shivered. _Concentrate on work or you’ll never make it through the day,_ he reminded himself.

 

\--

 

Luckily, or unluckily, that turned out not to be a problem. He ran from meeting to meeting, from problem to problem, all day, with barely a break to eat, much less to consider the change in his and Thrawn’s relationship since their return from Vria. It was well past shift-change when he and Faro finally worked out the staffing issue they’d been discussing for way too long.

“That’s it, I’m done,” Faro said, yawning. “I’m handing the bridge to you, Kolsky.” The Commander, Faro’s usual second-in-command, nodded at her in recognition. “Buy you a drink, Vanto? You look like you could use it. Can’t believe the Admiral has you running all over the place, you two are barely out of bacta treatments.”

“Yeah,” Eli said, half-smiling before he could stop himself. “I’m fine, though, really.”

Faro raised an eyebrow at him. “Yeah, you look good for a guy who was half-frozen a few days ago,” she said. “So, you in?”

It was going to be a few hours before he could plausibly head back to Thrawn’s quarters — the Admiral hadn’t been there when Eli awoke, which was nothing out of the ordinary, and he’d probably been doing his own neglected projects. Eli _was_ tired of dealing with staff all day. And Faro was good company. “Sure,” he said.

Faro didn’t say anything else until they were in a tapcafe somewhere on one of the Chimera’s lower levels. As senior staff members, even off-duty, they were given a very wide berth, which they appreciated. Eli nursed a lomin ale and Faro eyed him, seemingly weighing something to herself.

“Eli,” Faro said, finally.

“Karyn,” Eli said. She was never usually _this_ oblique when she wanted to tell him something. It had to be major. He waited.

She nodded. “So, you two finally slept together,” she said, no trace of a question in her voice.

Eli almost choked on his drink. “Faro,” he hissed, glancing around the room. It was dark, loud, and there were no other people within earshot of them.

“No, listen—“ she said, holding up a hand. “I shouldn’t have just…come out with it like that.”

Eli eyed her warily. He would have had to be an idiot not to know what a hotly-debated topic Thrawn’s sex life was on board the Chimera. He was also all too aware that there was also a betting pool for evidence on his and Thrawn's relationship, which was up to, at last count, five thousand credits. Karyn had always been a friend, but was this the opening to blackmail? He’d told Thrawn he didn’t care about protocol, and he didn’t, but he didn’t welcome the thought of continually looking over his shoulder to protect the two of them. He just hadn’t expected that to start so soon. And not from her, of all people.

“Eli,” Faro said, lowering her voice even further. “Listen, my partner is a Bothan, okay?”

“Oh,” Eli said. Faro had mentioned her partner before, but she’d always left that information out. For obvious reasons. Interspecies relationships weren’t looked on fondly in the upper echelons of the Navy. And a Bothan—a lot of them were known to have Rebel tendencies. The fact that she’d trust him with that information…

“Right,” Faro said. “Now you know my secret too. Trust for trust?”

“I guess,” Eli groaned, head in his hands. “Is it obvious? Does everyone suspect?”

Faro waved a hand at him. “No one _suspects_ . Half the crew have a _theory_ on who or what or how often Thrawn fucks. There’s a bunch of people who think it’s you, but they’d think that even if they didn’t know you like I do — I mean, everyone who gets an aide position is supposed to have slept their way there, right? Some people think _I’m_ sleeping with him, some people say it’s the Emperor—“

Eli shuddered.

“I know, crazy, isn’t it?” Faro continued. “But no, it’s not obvious, at all. Not to someone who doesn't know the two of you as well as I do. And you two…sometimes the tension was so unbearable I wanted to scream, especially this last year. When I got that comm call from you on Vria, i thought that might have done it, then when we picked you up, I was sure—“ She shook her head. “Damn it, I felt so _vindicated_ , I knew I was right! And I couldn’t say anything to anyone. Sorry, I couldn’t help it. But I thought you might want to know, I’m happy for you.”

Eli couldn’t help it, he grinned. “Yeah, it’s, uh—“ He didn’t know how to finish that sentence, so he finished his drink instead.

“I mean, I’m not into men, but I’d be lying if I didn’t say that he’s intriguing. That focus, the attention to detail…It’s amazing just to get a _compliment_ from the man,” Faro said. “It must be—“

“Yeah,” Eli sighed again, before he could stop himself.

“It was on Vria? Not before?”

“Not before,” Eli said. It _was_ kind of good, he thought, to be able to talk to someone about this.

“I _knew_ it,” Faro said, smugly. She held up her glass, toasting him. “Nice.”

 

—

 

He didn’t see Thrawn again for more than a week. The Admiral left him a message, saying he’d been recalled to Coruscant for a meeting with the Emperor. Eli saw the logic in leaving him aboard the Chimera, but he still worried. Thrawn had become politically savvy over the years, but Eli still would have felt better had he been there to interpret the situation — and to be aware of any pending threats, whether from inside the Navy or outside of it.

He threw himself into work, instead, and there was plenty of it to do. Faro was true to her word, she didn’t bring it up again, didn’t even toss him a knowing glance. Business as usual.

Eli got a comm from Thrawn when he returned — it was late, but Eli wasn’t sleeping. _I have information to share,_ the comm said. _If it is not too late._

The door to Thrawn’s quarters unlocked at Eli’s voice command, as it had for the last several years. Another indication of the trust between them. Eli entered to find him sitting at the small table in his suite of private rooms, not behind the desk. There were two tiny glasses and a bottle of a deep red liquor in front of him.

Thrawn looked…tired. Even distressed. He was out of uniform, wearing fatigues like an off-duty pilot might — a thin shirt that displayed muscular arms, soft, low-slung pants. Eli’s pulse pounded in his ears, and Thrawn looked up at him, scanning over his face with a possessive look.

“Eli,” Thrawn murmured. He rose, folding Eli into an embrace and a kiss that made Eli’s face heat with its intensity.

 _That focus, the attention to detail…_ he remembered Faro saying. There had been a part of him that wondered, still, if this would last. He’d half-expected Thrawn to return from Coruscant and pretend that Vria hadn’t happened, that nothing had changed between them. After that greeting, there was no doubt or hesitation in Eli’s mind, and he wondered how he could ever have expected otherwise. 

“Will you join me?” Thrawn asked, indicating the bottle.

Eli nodded, taking a seat. “Is this _alcoholic_?” he said, picking up the bottle. He’d barely known Thrawn to drink anything much stronger than mineral water over the years they’d worked together, and yet, Thrawn had always been guarded -- even around Eli.

“Yes,” Thrawn sighed. Those guards were obviously starting to fall away. But why this, why now? There was a reason for everything Thrawn did, though, even in a seduction. Which this was, Eli knew. He'd play along, and unravel it as he went.

“It didn’t go well, then,” Eli said. He opened the bottle, releasing the spicy, complicated scent of the…whatever it was. “What _is_ this?”

“It is—“ Thrawn hesitated, and said a word in Cheunh, his native language.

“From Csilla?” Eli said, interested. “You took it with you during your exile?”

“i knew I’d be unlikely to find it elsewhere,” Thrawn said, which was a dodge of the question Eli had actually asked. He took the bottle back and poured two glasses. “And no, it did not go well.”

Eli lifted his glass. “Do the Chiss toast?”

Thrawn rattled something off in Cheunh, all liquid sibilants, then in Basic: “To honor.”

“That’s a...Chiss thing to say,” Eli said, raising his own glass. “To ourselves.”

“As no one else will concern themselves with our welfare,” Thrawn said.

It was the traditional Imperial enlisted reply. Eli wasn’t sure if Thrawn would know it, but of course he did. Eli grinned at him, and Thrawn’s expression subtly lightened.

They drank. Eli raised an eyebrow at the sheer strength of the whatever-it-was. Its taste was complicated: spice, smoke, faintly floral. It seemed to vaporize as it hit the back of his throat and warm him from the inside.

“It _really_ didn’t go well, did it?” he said. “This is strong.”

“Indeed,” Thrawn said, and refilled the glasses. “Eli, I would like to begin teaching you Cheunh.”

Eli mulled this over. He had proven to be talented with languages — Sy Bisti, of course, but he’d also picked up a few others at a passable level. He had always wondered why Thrawn barely mentioned his homeworld, and why he’d only ever let Eli hear small snippets of his native language. That had started to change on Vria. And now this.

“Any special reason why?” he asked.

“The Emperor wanted to share his upcoming plans with the Chiefs of Staff and the Admiralty,” Thrawn said, staring into his glass. He held it up to the light, and the liquid refracted like a gemstone, rainbow shades bouncing in its deep red heart. “The Rebellion is becoming more of an issue than even we suspected. He believes overtures are being made between the elements. That they will eventually unify.”

That had nothing to do with learning a language. Eli let it go. Thrawn would get to the point eventually.

Eli drained his glass a second time. Its effects were extremely pleasant and incredibly distracting. This, too, was part of a plan. Eli was walking right into it, and he didn't mind. He sighed and stretched, feeling Thrawn's eyes on his arms, on the muscles straining as he reached over his head. He let the stretch go on a second too long, enjoying the attention.

“Everyone says that’s impossible. The rebel cells have too many different aims, too many different tactics,” he considered. The conversation was part of the plan, too. Part of building the tension between then, the understanding. “But if there was something large-scale enough…something impossible to defeat without unity?”

“Something that required a large amount of doonium to build?” Thrawn said, a bitter, sardonic note coloring his voice.

“You know what it is,” Eli said.

Thrawn nodded. “A superweapon. A planet killer.”

Silence. Of course, Eli thought. The metals, the hyperdrives. He was still considering the implications of a project like that when Thrawn continued, “Eli, I must confess something to you. I was not exiled by my people.”

That seemed off-topic, but this was all going somewhere. Eli looked at his empty glass, running through his memories of finding Thrawn on that planet, the event that had utterly changed his life.

“Of course,” he said, almost to himself. “It was a plan, wasn’t it? We were meant to find you — or someone from the Empire was. Your people wanted to see if we would be good allies?”

Eli wasn’t distressed by this revelation. There was always an ulterior motive, with Thrawn, but most of the time, Eli had found, it was a sensible one. Even a benevolent one.

Another pause. Thrawn actually looked surprised, then rewarded him with a rare smile. “You are correct, and once again, I am reminded of the importance of luck in a truly good plan of engagement. I could not have predicted that my effort would result in meeting you.”

Eli smiled back, but he wasn't about to abandon this line of questioning. “So what happened? It must have been something major in order for you to tell me all this. You aren't dying, are you?”

Thrawn poured them another glass, giving Eli a look. “At the meeting, the Emperor brought his enforcer.”

“Darth Vader?” Eli asked. “People say he’s a myth, rebel propaganda. He’s supposed to be a Jedi, right? But the Jedi were traitors — they tried to seize power. Why would the Emperor trust one of them?”

“He is real,” Thrawn said, grimly. “As are the powers ascribed to him. The Emperor claims that he was the only loyal Jedi, who was gravely wounded by one of the traitors, and now has taken a new name to protect himself,” Thawn paused, studying the table. “He killed one of the joint chiefs for disagreeing with a point of strategy, without even touching the man.”

Eli didn’t know what to say to that. He wouldn’t have believed it, if it hadn’t been Thrawn who saw it.

“I still believe the best hope for my people is an alliance with the Empire—we know there is a growing threat in the galaxy, something worse than even this coming civil war— but I hate waste,” Thrawn said, almost growling the words.

“And it will be an open war,” Eli said, slowly, thinking about the implications. “If it is some kind of super-weapon they’re building.”

Thrawn nodded. “And in an open war, especially, I cannot countenance the frivolous use of material, or of personnel…Vria, and now this meeting, showed me how cheaply the lives of soldiers are held in the Imperial Navy. It is not so among my people. _I_ am considered reckless, to the Chiss, for my strategies, the risks I’m willing to take. Some of the Empire's tactics would be considered insane in comparison.”

Eli snorted. “You?”

Thrawn was the opposite of reckless. Considered, careful, even with civilian lives. Things that other commanders ignored, said a tiny voice that Eli had been doing his best not to listen to. Things that the Imperial Navy as a whole couldn't care less about. Not just on Vria. Eli remembered the slave ship they had found, years ago. Even most of the trainees at the Academy had the same attitude — use what you can, throw away the rest.

“I…” Thrawn hesitated. “I would teach you our language, Eli. I would send you to them. Where your skills would be appreciated, and your life would be valued. Not now, but when the time is right.”

“And you?” Eli said. He knew the answer even as he asked the question.

“I would stay, and do my duty to the Ascendancy,” Thrawn said, heavily. “Perhaps I would someday return there, perhaps not.”

 _No,_ Eli thought, _the Empire is my life._ But the image of the dead pilot on Vria flashed into his mind. The slave ship. The sneer on Whitsun’s face. Expendable. Disposable.

“You want to put me out of harm’s way? For my sake or for yours?” he asked.

“Both,” Thrawn admitted. “I would like to know that your skills are being correctly used. And although it is good tactics to ally with a strong military force, it does not follow that that force is entirely trustworthy. I would not trust the Empire with the location of the Ascendancy. Nor do I trust them with your life. And that is distracting. For both of us.”

“I’ll…consider it,” Eli said, slowly. Surprising himself.

He stood up, and the room spun. “Whoa, I am _drunk_ ,” he said, as he realized it, with the gravity of the truly intoxicated. “And it’s _your_ fault,” he said to Thrawn, who did his infuriating Chiss-grin.

Their conversation, with its grim implications, Eli decided, could wait.

That, he realized, had been part of the plan too.

“I, too, am not entirely sober,” Thrawn said. His red eyes glittered. “I did not wish to have this discussion with you without the aid of alcohol.”

“The Admiral admits a weakness,” Eli said, dryly. That had an implication of its own, something Eli had been meaning to follow up on. “Remind me to write that down in the logs...and take your shirt off, _sir._ ”

Without taking his gaze away from Eli’s, Thrawn complied, peeling off the thin shirt and dropping it at his feet. “You are talkative,” he noted. “I like it.”

“ _You_ ,” Eli said, pointing. “Are still dressed, and I don’t.”

The humor was a dodge. Being drunk was a dodge. All of it, a way to ignore the larger picture that was starting to take shape. That what they had, their partnership, their relationship, had a limit. They were soldiers; they’d cope. But that didn’t mean they had to like it.

Thrawn deliberately, slowly, removed the rest of his clothes, and stood, staring at Eli, who was still fully dressed — in uniform, nonetheless. Eli’s body heated, his throat dry with lust. He let himself look at Thrawn, eyes lingering on the flat, muscular planes of his chest, his erection brushing his stomach. He let the moment drag out.

Through the haze of lust and alcohol, Eli grinned. “I see exactly what you're doing,” he informed Thrawn.

Thrawn met his gaze. “Do you?” he asked, softly. “Do I meet with your approval, Lieutenant Commander?” There was the slightest hint of impatience in his voice. Eli shivered at it, but maintained his composure.

“It would be better if you were on your knees, Admiral,” Eli said.

Thrawn complied, straight-backed and regal, as he sank to the floor. He looked up at Eli, awaiting the next instruction. Eli swallowed, barely believing his own daring. He unfastened his pants and nodded at Thrawn.

Thrawn’s mouth on Eli’s heated flesh was almost too much on its own. Eli wavered, his knees going weak. He gripped Thrawn’s shoulders, steadying himself, as the other gripped his hips, clever tongue stroking Eli’s cock. Eli thrust into Thrawn’s mouth, his head spinning.

“Gods, that’s—ah, that’s so good…” he was babbling helplessly. “Wait, wait, stop—“ he gasped. “I want to, gods, I want to _fuck_ you, sir.” The formality fell from his lips before he could stop it, and he nearly came right then and there at how filthy it sounded in the moment.

Thrawn pulled back, gasping, his lips swollen. He looked as undone as Eli felt, reckless and brazen. “Yes,” he said raggedly. “Yes, Eli, please—“

That did it.

“Bed,” Eli ground out.

They got there somehow, weaving unsteadily, stopping every few feet to touch each other, tripping over each other, until they were there and Eli pushed Thrawn roughly down. The Chiss was more than a foot taller than Eli: Thrawn was _letting_ him do this. And that was as intoxicating as the dark red liquor had been. Eli was still half-dressed, pants somewhere around his ankles, uniform tunic undone and askew. Gods knew where his cap had ended up.

He started to push the tunic off, but Thrawn stopped him.

“Don’t,” he said. The red eyes scanned him up and down, as good as a touch.

Thrawn had noticed Eli’s anger, after Vria, his unease with the side of the Empire they had seen there. His aide was cool-headed and analytical, but underneath that, he had always been passionate. Thrawn had wanted that. Wanted to provoke it, to push Eli over the edge, to find out what it was like to be subject to it. He was very much enjoying finding out.  

Eli's hands were hot on Thrawn’s hips, his skin slick with sweat. Thrawn closed his eyes, for once surrendering to another's control, letting himself stop thinking two steps ahead.  

“You planned this,” Eli murmured into his ear.

Thrawn shivered. “Yes,” he said.

“You could have just asked me,” Eli said, with a grin. “You didn't have to get me drunk first.”

“No,” Thrawn admitted. “But I did. I find it--” He broke off in a gasp of breath as Eli’s slick fingers slipped lower, teasingly. He’d gotten a vial of oil from somewhere, it was all a blur. “--difficult to allow another to…ah--” He was losing his train of thought, but by the look on Eli's face, he more than understood the point.

“Hells,” Eli moaned as slipped his fingers out of Thrawn’s ass, fitting his cock against the tight entrance. “Do you even _know_ how long I’ve wanted to--”

Eli closed his eyes, reveling in the feel of Thrawn tight around him. It had been a long time since he’d done this, and to have Thrawn of all people underneath him, face slack with pleasure, gasping...Eli steadied himself with a hand spread flat on Thrawn’s chest, feeling the other man shake.

“ _Eli,”_ Thrawn said, urgently, and Eli finally got it together enough to move, thrusting his hips in a slow, grinding rhythm that he _definitely_ wasn’t going to be able to keep up for very long. Thrawn reached up and gripped Eli’s forearms, just on the edge of too hard, driving Eli even deeper. He hissed something in Cheunh, eyes half-closed, and at the sight of the Admiral so undone, Eli couldn’t hold back any longer -- he was coming, his orgasm taking him by surprise.

“Yes,” Thrawn said, raggedly, and Eli felt him follow, coming into Eli’s hand wrapped around his cock.

“ _Fuck,”_ Eli said, rolling over in the Admiral’s bed, feeling languid with the aftermath, sweat drying on his chest, lightheaded and dizzy.

“Yes,” Thrawn said, voice rough.

He reached across the bed and pulled Eli closer. This was so far beyond Vria, the two of them hesitantly fumbling in the cold, dark shack, fearing for their lives, or even that night in Thrawn’s office, Eli bent over the desk like he’d fantasized so many times. He’d never thought he’d wanted to reverse their roles, or that Thrawn would give up his iron control so completely…

”I really hope I remember this in the morning,” Eli murmured into the general region of Thrawn’s shoulder.

“Mm,” Thrawn agreed, a minute shiver passing over him at Eli’s touch.

“What did you say? First language lesson,” Eli said.

There was a pause. Thrawn repeated the breathy, sibilant Cheunh words, then, in Basic, “An...endearment.”

Eli waited. “I need a full translation,” he said, after a moment.

“ _Beloved_ ,” Thrawn said. The hesitance in his voice, the fact that he let it show, was another guard falling away.  

Eli grinned in the dark, and repeated the sounds as best as he could recall.

“We will work on your accent,” Thrawn said, tangling his fingers in Eli’s hair.

 

-

When the alarm chimed, Eli opened his eyes hesitantly, expecting the hangover he deserved, but -- he actually felt fine.

Thrawn was still undressed, still lying beside him in the bed. Not asleep, looking at something on a datapad, frowning. His expression softened as he noticed that Eli was awake.

“The duty roster has been updated,” Thrawn informed him. “You have a later shift on the bridge, so there is no hurry.”

Eli yawned and stretched. “I don't want to sound ungrateful, but you didn't have to do that. I’m not even hungover.”

“My people employ superior distilling techniques,” Thrawn said, absently. Eli rolled his eyes. “and I did not make the adjustment, Commander Faro did, last night. She is our ally, I assume, in this?”

“She guessed,” Eli said. “She can be trusted to keep it quiet.”

“Of course,” Thrawn said. “I would not select a Captain I did not trust. She has known us both long enough, and I have trained her to observe...I think I would be disappointed if she did not guess.” He put the datapad down, ran his fingers though Eli’s hair.

“I’ll go,” Eli said, suddenly knowing his answer and not being able to stop himself from saying it. “I’ll go to the Ascendancy when it’s time.”

Thrawn’s hand stopped moving for a moment. “Good,” he said, simply, a little wistfully.

“But for now…” Eli said. “I do have the morning off, and _someone_ cleared your calendar as well.”

“The importance of a good aide cannot be understated,” Thrawn said, smiling.

  



End file.
